"The Excursion and the Prelude, his poems of greatest bulk, are by no means Wordsworth's best work. His best work is in his shorter pieces, and many indeed are there of these which are of first-rate excellence. But in his seven volumes the pieces of high merit are mingled with a mass of pieces very inferior to them; so inferior to them that it seems wonderful how the same poet should have produced both... Wordsworth composed verses during a space of some sixty years; and it is no exaggeration to say that within one single decade of those years, between 1798 and 1808, almost all his really first-rate work was produced. A mass of inferior work remains, work done before and after this golden prime, imbedding the first-rate work and clogging it, obstructing our approach to it, chilling, not unfrequently, the high-wrought mood with which we leave it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Matthew Arnold, preface to Poems of Wordsworth (1879), pp. xi-xii
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Wordsworth
1770 – 1850
englischer Dichter
296 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Wordsworth →
Related Quotes
"Wisdom and spirit of the Universe! Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought! And giv'st to forms and images a brea…"
"My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it…"
"Behold, within the leafy shade, Those bright blue eggs together laid! On me the chance-discovered sight Gleamed like …"
"What is pride? A whizzing rocket That would emulate a star."
"I travelled among unknown men, In lands beyond the sea; Nor, England! did I know till then What love I bore to thee."
"Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee…"
"No bird, but an invisible thing, A voice, a mystery."
"She gave me eyes, she gave me ears; And humble cares,and delicate fears; A heart, the fountain of sweet tears; And lo…"
"Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now."
"Like an army defeated The snow hath retreated, And now doth fare ill On the top of the bare hill; The Ploughboy is wh…"